Moscow eagerly endorses al-Sisi bid

We are currently undergoing updates to our site and are working to improve your experience on all devices that you use throughout your day. If you should find a page or a story that is not working correctly, please click here.

Thank you for your patience,

TribLIVE.com Team

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday wished Egypt's military chief victory in the nation's presidential vote, even though he has yet to announce his bid — a strong endorsement signaling Moscow's desire to expand its military and other ties with a key U.S. ally in the Middle East.

Putin appeared to be capitalizing on a growing move by gulf nations — particularly Saudi Arabia — to move the Middle East off its traditional reliance on the United States.

Egyptian Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi's visit to Moscow comes amid reports of a $2 billion Egyptian arms deal with Russia to be funded mainly by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which is part of Egypt's shift to reduce reliance on the United States.

“The United States' influence is steadily waning in the region for several years,” said Gamal Abdel-Gawad, a political analyst at Cairo's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. “Traditional allies like the Saudis are becoming more and more suspicious, and U.S. credibility in the region is at stake.

Without naming the United States, the Kremlin criticized what it regards as U.S. interference in the internal affairs of other countries. Russia's ties with the United States have been badly strained by disputes ranging from Syria's civil war, to missile defense plans in Europe, to Moscow's human rights record.

“I know that you have made a decision to run for president,” Putin said at the start of his meeting with al-Sisi. “That's a very responsible decision: to undertake such a mission for the fate of the Egyptian people. On my own part, and on behalf of the Russian people, I wish you success.”

Al-Sisi didn't mention presidential ambitions in brief opening remarks, but emphasized his focus on ensuring security, saying that the country's military is capable of providing it.

The 59-year old al-Sisi is popular among a large segment of Egyptians and is widely expected to announce a candidacy for presidential elections that are likely due in late April.

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our
Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments either by the same reader or different readers

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent
via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.